1903 may have
been a long year for sixteen year old Cella and her thirty-five
year old aunt Mary. Frank Byrne, Cella's
father and Mary's brother, passed away on December
20, 1902. A year and ten days later, On December 30, 1903, Cella and Mary
probably felt a year of mourning was long enough.
They set out to enjoy an afternoon fairytale matinee at
Chicago's newest playhouse, the Iroquois Theater.
By
day's end their bodies were found at Rolstons
funeral home by Cella's mother and Mary's sister.

Cella and Mary's
funerals may have been held at St. Jarlath's Catholic Church
(1869-1969) at 1725 W. Jackson Blvd. in Chicago,
site of Frank Byrne's funeral.
In the early 1900s, the church had over 3,000
parishioners, mostly Irish immigrants from the
surrounding neighborhood.

Agnes Consilia* Byrne, nicknamed Cella,
was born on April 26, 1887 to Francis "Frank" Michael
Byrne (1861- 1902) and
Mary Anne
Doyle Byrne (1862-1918). She may have been named after
her aunt, Agnes Cecelia Finnegan Doyle, wife of
Mary's brother, Owen Eugene Doyle.

Cella
was one of a thousand students attending the Joseph Medill High School (1898- ) in
Chicago but was the only Medill student I've found so
far who who was an Iroquois victim.

In the
late 1800s and early 1900s the Byrne family lived
at 616 W. 15th street in Chicago with two of Mary
Doyle Byrne's three surviving brothers, Owen Eugene
Doyle and
Edward Doyle, and their families.

Frank
Byrne, who worked as a printer, died a year and ten
days before the Iroquois fire. Therefore the
identification of Cella's body at Rolston's funeral
home fell to his widow, Mary. She
buried Cella in the Doyle family plot at Calvary
Cemetery, where Mary herself would some day be
interred. Though only forty one when she
found herself a childless widow, Mary did not
remarry. She
participated in a committee that planned the memorial service for Iroquois victims that took
place on December 30,1904, a year after the fire,
and at her death in 1918 worked for the Chicago
Telephone Company, presumably as an operator.

Mary Doyle Byrne was the only
daughter of four children born to Edward Doyle and
Catherine Moore Doyle, both of whom she lost in
1907. She was close to the large family of her
brother in law, Owen Eugene Bryne, and his wife, Agnes
Cecelia Finnegan Bryne, and to her brother, Edward
Doyle, until his death.

Cella's
aunt, Mary A. Byrne was Frank Byrne's older sister.
She taught school until 1898
but by 1900 was not working outside the home.
Her body was also found at Rolston's, and was
identified by her younger sister, Katherine J. Byrne
(1873-1922), with whom she lived.

Did Mary Doyle Bryne and Katherine Byrne
search the morgues
together? Not known but it seems likely.

At the time of the
Iroquois Theater fire, Mary Bryne, Katherine Bryne
and their brother, Patrick Byrne (1860- ), lived at
879 Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, along with a cousin from
Canada named Vincent Pelletier (1870- ).
Though Mary seems to have retired from teaching, Katherine
taught at the John Spry school on S. Marshall Blvd.
in Chicago. Patrick
worked as a musician and Vincent sold insurance.

In the years after the fire, Katherine
Byrne married a
grocer, Joseph Larkin, and in 1908 they had a
daughter -- named Mary, probably after Katherine's
sister who died at the Iroquois. Sadly, the
child died at age seven.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Discrepancies in period victim
reports for
Agnes and Mary made this story challenging and the only reason it came together was due to
help from three fellow history lovers. Many
thanks to Susan and Jessica at Find-a- Grave, and to
Kathleen Strobel one of Cella's descendants.
Susan scoured photos, records and Jessica was
patient when my "Aha!" moment turned out to be a
dead end. Cella's descendent was kind enough to let me use
Cella's photo and shared a bit of family history,
including Cella's burial information.
From her I learned why Cella went by her middle name, rather than by Agnes. Her
namesake, her aunt Agnes Concelia Finnegan Byrne, so
strongly disliked her first name that when one of
her sons named his daughter after her, she insisted
he head right back to City Hall to have it changed.

* Spelled Cousilia in
coroner records and Consuela in some out of town
newspapers. Consilia was the spelling recorded
in her Chicago birth records.

If you have additional
info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error, I would like to
hear from you. Chaos and communication limitations of 1903
produced many errors I'm striving to correct and welcome all the help I can get. Space is provided at the
bottom of stories for comments, or contact
me directly.